Historical legends tell of people and events from the past. The circumstances and characters they portray may be fictional or idealised, but they are always tied to a particular place and to real events, such as a war or a conflict between families. Some preserve the values and ideas of a particular historical period, beliefs that vanished along with it and survive today only as curiosities. At times they serve a propagandistic purpose, distorting historical events through the political concerns of the present. Others preserve the memory of individuals who, for better or worse, stood out and left their mark on the memory of their community.

Historical narratives come in every form, populated by solemn, comic or tragic figures and preserving human experience across centuries, generations and places. They help us understand history from the perspective of popular tradition and transmission.